used for a few years, this expression from the Rap universe referred to the North Korean regime. Decontextualized, devoid of her “from the North”, she has lost his meaning, simply evoking today a brand of friendly approval.
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History of an expression. “And, as a bonus, with the Greens it is square as in Korea”: this is how the editor of the monthly Lyon Capitale, Guillaume Lamy, concludes a paragraph of his editorial of March 14 . Such a comparison is surprising: what is Korea to Lyon do?
Deconant, the expression “is square as in Korea” has been supported in a sustained manner for five years. It is meeting more and more frequently during familiar exchanges, starting with the conversations of the youngest speakers, where it is similar to a brand of friendly and released approval, synonymous with a “agreement” or the concise “OK”: “We meet at 4 pm? – Is it square as in Korea”; “I will join you later. – It’s square as in Korea.”
a prolific adjective
Let’s go back to the root of this mysterious “square”. The adjective alone has many meanings. Beyond its generic and geometric sense, from the 19th e century many figurative senses which allow the formation of multiple expressions. The painter and art critic Etienne -Jean Delécluze thus evokes in his journal of 1824 -1828, “square heads”, that is to say people whose judgment is coherent. As summarized by linguistic professor Jean-Pierre Goudaillier, “this is a most prolific adjective for the slang language”.
Contemporary exchanges of the youngest, however, testify to a novelty: the alliance of the presentative “it is” and the “square” polysemic adjective which positively describes a situation, or agrees to a statement: “we eat Together tomorrow? – It’s square. “We think of other expressions such as” it’s clean “and his brotherly counterpart” is clean “, already a little outdated, which work in a similar way. “The expressions that say the high degree of membership have a low semantic content and especially inform about the speaker’s involvement,” explains linguist Julie Neveux. These formulas, say by passing and grazing the tic of language, constantly transform under the yoke of a programmed linguistic obsolescence: “They wear out and renew themselves all the more quickly since they target the maximum intensity, as Their use, as soon as it spreads, weakens, “adds the linguist.
However, what surprises in this expression is that this banal “is square” has recently gripped a funny comparant, “Korea”, implied from the North. The first occurrences of this formulation are in pieces of rap. Since the early 2000s, North Korea has been a source of fascination for French rap. In 2001, in his song Rap Info, Rohff quotes it as a model: “It would be necessary to make one like Korea, all Synchros like a choré.” The phenomenon increases and knows its peak towards the end of the 2010s. Parsème his songs of reference to North Korea, going so far as to dedicate one of his titles to the former dictator Kim Jong-II (1941-2011) in 2013. Military discipline, subversive force opposed to the United States, fantasy of a community that would block … All these elements are rented with the aim of offending by reversing the agreed values and transforming this authoritarian state into an inspiring model.
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